7 smart tricks for authors/bloggers starting a mailing list // since we're all jumping on the hype train

Hello bookish fiends! Today we have a super detailed guide for authors or bloggers trying to wrap their minds around this "mailing list" phenomenon! You will want to know these tricks so you don't smush yourselves into a mud puddle infested with spiky urchins. Like bb!Alyssa did 2 years ago.

(but Alyssa spiky urchins don't live in mud puddles--SHHH I'm a fantasy author I do what I want.)

If you don't want to miss out on future tips, be sure to sign up here.

Why do you need a mailing list?

Under our capitalist overlords, we've got to earn money for books and food! (Yes, I put books first.) If you want to monetise your book blog or sell your own books, a mailing list is an incredibly helpful direct line of contact to the people who are interested in what you're offering.

So let's get to the TRICKZ that will get you ahead of the curve.

1. Don't ask people if you should start a newsletter.

Say, "I'm thinking of doing a newsletter! Sign up if you'd read it!"

If you can't be bothered to set anything up, that's manageable -- just ask people to message you their email address.

People vote yes on your Twitter poll, then forget about it. Action is the best way to confirm interest! This isn't a major tip, but I see y'all doing it on Twitter and it's a pet peeve. 

2. Mailchimp is not the only option. Really.

Okay, MailChimp isn't bad! I started on this and still use it for a few things I'm too lazy to switch over. Quick thoughts:

• A great free plan with 2k subscribers
• Satisfactory deliverability
• Really user-friendly
• Subpar tracking and automations
• Can't easily "tag" subscribers, which means you'll be double counting subscribers for multiple lists

I've also given Mailerlite a spin:

• 1k free subscribers with great tagging system
• Fantastic, user-friendly automation — I can follow up on certain people who've clicked a certain link and go up to them like "heLLO I think you'd like a glass of lemonade"
• Send rich text emails like you're just chatting with friends. WHICH I LOVE.
• Many features removed from the free plan earlier this year
• I had deliverability issues in the three months or so that I used it.

Eventually the spam mushrooms started creeping back onto me and my list grew too big for their free plan. So I switched to sender.net last week:

• 2.5k free subscribers
• Good tagging and automation
• Because I'm super picky with templates, I wrote all my own emails with HTML, so if you're completely new to coding, make sure you're comfy with their templates.
• (Coding is something I talk about in a future post! sign up for updates here)
• I did encounter some technical issues here and there but their live chat support is really excellent.
• Basically 83% the features I need? For free?? For more subscribers???

Another option is sendinblue, which has unlimited subscribers, but only lets you send 300 emails a day on the free plan.

Explore options before leaping on the generic train, okay? Okay, teacups!

3. Don't use embedded sign-ups.

Use a page on your own website. Don't embed in your blog posts. Don't use a landing page by your email provider. Don't use a third-party form.

Because you might want to tweak your signup, and the changes might not translate to your embedded form. Because you might want to change providers, and now all your forms in old blog posts are wrong. Because the third-party form provider might vanish, and your links are now dead. Yes, I learned these the HARD way.

Plus, I hate those Captchas! Maybe I'm secretly a robot, but I always get them wrong and it's torture to sign up for anything, which makes me not sign up. Using your own landing pages gives you the option to avoid them. (I've never noticed a particular uptick in bot signups when they're removed.)

If you don't know how to set up landing pages, I will teach you that in a future post (stay updated here). But for now, set up a redirect from a page on your own website to a landing page of your email provider, or embed the sign-up in a static page and send people there.

When you level up and want to make changes, it will be much easier to tweak your own page!

... and yes ... I am pointing you to mailchimp's signup form for tutorial updates ... because if I changed it now, I'd have way too many dead links to fix. DO AS I SAY not as I do.

4. Reconsider using tips or tutorials to make people sign up.

—uh, Alyssa, YOU ARE DOING THIS.

You see, these rules are like writing rules, where if you know why they exist, you're free to break them. I'm not the boss of you. You're your own boss. Or you're an underemployed millennial who wants to dismantle capitalism?? Sign me up for THAT mailing list.

Anyways, my email list for future blogging/website tips? It's the first list I started, and the one with the worst engagement. I don't expect to sell anything from it. I just want to make sure the few people who are still reading get to see my new content. I'm so benevolent. *hides Slytherin scarf*

Authors: The reason you shouldn't use "how-to" posts to entice people to join your list is that you're likely giving advice on how to write to other writers, when the people you actually want on your list are people who think your book idea sounds cool and will want a copy 30000 years later, when revisions are finally done. I won't lie, tutorials can create amazing sign-up numbers, but think about who are the right subscribers for your newsletter! Tutorial posts are a common suggestion for mailing list beginners, so I just wanted to say my piece against them for fiction writers building their platform.

Book bloggers: Tutorial posts are an AMAZING way to connect with other bloggers and I do love to do that!! I'll shake all the hands like an octopus! But if you want your audience to be comprised of a wider audience of non-blogging readers, then you might want to think of other content ideas.

5. Don't act like a company sending me discount codes I'll never use.

I personally love author newsletters because they're an intimate way to talk with my closest supporters. I say hello teacups I need your help to choose a title because I'm a silly indecisive goose. I say they say dystopian is dead, my book is going to prove them wrong.

So I don't get it when author newsletters have weird block formats and speak in the third person and paste their blurb in wholesale! I mean, nothing against these authors, it's just not my style. That's up to you!

(On the other hand, I'm personally not a fan of lifestyle-ish author newsletters. I like to talk books more! But that might be because I'm still a book blogger at heart, so eat your chocolate however you want. YMMV.)

6. Don't do it just because they all say you should.

Mailing lists actually can take a lot of time, and mistakes, and effort. It's definitely not "build it and they will come" or "passive income". If someone's mailing list reached 10K in 2 days, it's probably because they were already influential.

Start a mailing list if you have the time wouldn't mind modest results. It's great, but I don't feel like it's a must.

So if you find all this confusing, it's fine to ... not. 

Alyssa, of course I find this confusing! You keep telling me what NOT to do, and it's turning me into a porcupine in headlights! Tell me something TO DO.

7. Convert your social media followers to email friends.

You know what? I'll be real. Social media is still going to reach more people. Emails aren't going to go viral!

So find a way to turn your social media reach into an email list. Here's why — social media is owned by corporations who like algorithms. Ugh. You can't control them, or their decisions when they decide to wipe you off the map but keep the racists around.

PSA. A misconception about mailing lists: A lot of people just shout "no algorithm!" six times as though this is a ritual to ward off the demons of social media.

Well, first of all, there is an algorithm: email spam filters, your service providers' terms of service, and also your readers' minds. On a good day my email list may get 50%-70% open rates. My smol Instagram account's posts might be seen by 50% of my followers and it might also get seen by four times as many non-followers. Don't leap on the hype train just for the demon rituals!

But you won't lose the subscribers because of a social network's say-so ... take your list with you unless they unsubscribe.

I've tried several modes of tweets / social media posts to convert followers to email friends, and here's my experience:

does NOT work: "Want to find out 10 reasons romance is dead? get the deets here: [SIGNUP LINK]"

This is the classic "lead magnet" style that lots of other email list tutorials will suggest, to entice them with some sort of secret or benefit or incantation. My personal results are dismal. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I'm not doing it anymore!

sometimes works: "I just started a newsletter, please join here! [SIGNUP LINK]"

This isn't fancy, but it will get your closest followers to join you. I've literally signed up because an author I liked said "I will feel bad if this doesn't work". The guilt trip annoyed me, but it worked!

If nothing else, here's your takeaway from this post: a mailing list is not going to inherently net you new fans like an ad. For me, I use it to continue to engage with people who already like what I'm doing! That's why giving a blunt invitation is better than writing up clickbaity ~content upgrades~ to lure people in.

best for me: "Friends, my latest newsletter drops Saturday. I'm talking about [TWO TO THREE SPECIFIC THINGS]. Join here! [SIGNUP LINK]"

I'm upfront about what my intentions are, I show them I'm super cool and they should do as I say, and I give them a gentle time limit. It's like the Inigo Montoya method of networking ...

maybe works?? "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to join my murder newsletter."

and that's a wrap! If you'd like to see how I do my authorly newsletters after learning from 2 years of mistakes, here's the link. ... I will feel bad if this doesn't work? Ha!

Any questions about mailing lists? Comment below! Oh, and leave a link to your newsletter + join up with other people's too — there's no better way to learn about newsletters than observing how others do it!

.S. My next post is about how to start a stylish book blog or author website for FREEEEEE. If you want to stay updated on that, head here.

Looking to promote to book lovers? My giveaways are promoted to around 1.5K dedicated newsletter readers, may reach over 30K impressions on Twitter and a potential audience of over 50K on Instagram. Email me to sponsor one now or find out more!

How should you monetise your book blog? Redbubble vs Society6 + 6 case studies + Infographic (CIVIL WAR!)

More and more book bloggers are monetising their book blog, which is THE COOLEST. One of the more popular options are print-on-demand design shops like Redbubble and Society6. Today, we have 6 fantastic designers here for the CIVIL WAR between the two!

So why are design shops so popular? First off, print-on-demand design shops like Redbubble and Society6 are super easy. In my opinion, they also align better with blog readers, aka other book lovers, more than most ads.

And last of all ... many bloggers have picked up design to make a pretty blog! So it only makes sense to transfer the skills. I think it's super important for book bloggers to be invested in art OTHER than books. It's productive procrastination and helps us keep blogs running!

Looking to promote to book lovers? My giveaways are promoted to 1000+ subscribers and have gotten up to 18K impressions on Twitter. Email me to sponsor one now!

Team Divergent:

Shannelle @ Art of Escapism

1. Thoughts on Society6? 

I think that Society6 is awesome because it runs promotions with free worldwide shipping. As a customer, it's really hard to beat that. But I really, really hate how I have to size a different file for each item. I can't just crop a file like I do in Redbubble.

2. Thoughts on Redbubble? 

I love how much more user-friendly Redbubble is when it comes to uploading, they have a cool range of products, and their support is really quick too. I love how you can set whatever price you want, for every single product, and their option to download an image that you uploaded yourself is awesome too!

Redbubble only offers discounts, though, but no free shipping. And while sometimes that's manageable, like a journal to China with a shipping fee of $5, which I can actually live with (and no, I have not been staring at my cart with my All the Mysteries of the Universe journal and crying inside a lot). But the fact remains that it's still expensive.

3. Biggest difference between the two?

I see Redbubble more of as truly for the artist. As a whole, it provides proper protection of art, it's easier to upload things on it, and they have a really cool range of products (if you see someone using a Fire-Breathing Bitch-Queen journal in the wild, tell me so I can smother the person with my love), not to mention their very flexible pricing.

Society6's biggest selling point to me, as someone not in the US, is their free shipping for other international buyers. But I personally think that their system is not nice to artists. Unlike Redbubble, I can't put an artist's note, and as someone who puts a lot of thought into each design, I would like to put something and hope people appreciate that. Links to the artist's website are also hidden, so while it does put a spotlight on the art, the artist deserves appreciation too.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: Shannelle's VICIOUS throw pillow as pictured to the right! I mean, did you expect anything else from the diehard Schwab fan? And don't forget to visit Shannelle's Redbubble and Society6 stores!

Cait @ Paper Fury

As our glorious queen, Cait is of course different from the other lovely divergent contributors to this post. Instead of being on Redbubble and Society6, she's on Etsy and Society6.

1. Why did you choose to sell on Etsy? And after that, why did you also join Society6?

I basically picked Etsy because before that I'd been selling via facebook and it is abominable for trying to promote products and not pay for ads. Etsy was the only other internet creature I knew of to trot my origami over to so -- voila! I did!

I've been on Etsy for nearly 2 years now, but I only just signed up for Society6. Firstly, because I've wanted to for a while. So why not try it?! And secondly (most important) I honestly don't think there's ever enough merchandise out there to proclaim the gloriousness of dragons. I am here to fill the need.

2. What are the best features of Etsy and Society6 respectively?

Etsy: You only pay about 3% of your profits to Etsy, so that's marvellous. You basically have a lot of control over your store and if you're a mild control-buzzard like me, then that's glorious.

Society6: Your job is so easy. After you upload the design: BOOM, you are done. You could sell 1 thing or 100 things and you don't have to do a thing. Also no risk of mixing up orders, running out of something, or accidentally crying over your products in rush-season.

3. What are the limitations of these two platforms?

Etsy: People who buy handmade tend to be very picky. And if a customer has a problem, they can leave a nasty review before you even have a chance to fix the problem.

Society6: It definitely boils down to: you don't make very much profit. You definitely have to sell a lot, which can be daunting. Also purchasing the correct licenses for graphics and fonts can be mildly overwhelming.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: On Cait's Etsy, definitely her new bookhook bookmarks! And from her Society6, it shall be her "drinking the tears of my readers" travel mug. I think I'd kill for one of those.

So far an infographic to sum up Society6 vs Redbubble, but keep reading the case studies for details!

Oh yes, blookunity, you should pin that for reference. Just roll your cursor over the infographic!

Team Redbubble:

Eve @ Twist in the Taile

1. Why did you choose Redbubble?

I chose Redbubble because I preferred it as a customer. I’d previously had good experiences buying from it. The pricing and shipping of Society6 seemed quite geared towards the US, and I feel as though it sells more art and illustration. I wanted to sell designs on actual items rather than just art prints!

2. What is the best feature of Redbubble?

It’s extremely easy to set up. You only have to upload designs and set prices! And it’s easy to find your stats too. For someone like me who has very small knowledge of businesses, it’s excellent.

3. What limits you most on Redbubble?

I haven’t yet encountered any major limits (although I haven’t been selling on it all that long). But I think the search system doesn’t work particularly well, and often seems quite random. It can miss out items for a specific combination of search terms even if the keywords are in there.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: Eve's Les Mis vive la revolution notebook and her writing warrior stickers are so cool! Check out her store!

Meleika @ Endless Pages

1. Why did you choose Redbubble?

Redbubble is super easy to use and uploading pictures is super easy. I also chose to open a small shop there because it had no verification fee.

2. What is the best feature of Redbubble?

The best features on Redbubble is the layout of the website. I prefer it way more than Society6. It's also easier to upload your work as you can resize it (zoom in and out and also multiply it) on the website. I can also bulk upload my designs and fanarts!

3. What limits you most on Redbubble?

Redbubble hardly ever has 'free shipping' or specials. This is why I also ended up opening a Society6 store but most of my customers are on Redbubble. They go crazy for the shadow hunter stuff and my tumblr chats.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: Her 'the pen is mightier than the sword' and 'I wish I was reading' notebooks are super snazzy! Check out her store!

Team Society6:

Yani

1. Why did you choose Society6?

There are countless reasons I can think of right now so let's just break them down:

I am in an overwhelming feeling of admiration whenever I visit stores of some great artists in Society6 which resulted to daydreaming of my store & that someday, I would be one of these artists, that people would look up to my works (THAT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE RIGHT NOW BC I'M LAZY AS THAT CAT BESIDE YOU).

Society6 serves their artists in a satisfactory manner. Take this: You are a long boarder and went to a skate park with lots of skate boarders but these skate boarders invited you to join them because you are a boarder. Long and skate boards just differ in sizes but when you use it, it's still skating. No difference, eh? The artists in Society6 have different kinds of works but they are still the same.

Society6 is like the legit site I know for now. There are lots that are booming but I don't know them, yet. And I even don't know how to manage my time with blogging, school and my store, how much more if I open another store? I would go demented!

2. What is the best feature of Society6?

Their profit on art prints! You can name your price. ($$$HINING IN MY EYES). I'm genuinely thankful to Society6 for these profits, it's staggeringly helpful + I don't have to do the work on producing whatever I sell on the store, I only just upload my art and tadahhh! (EXCUSE MY DESIGNS RIGHT NOW FOR THEY ARE A PRODUCT OF HEAVY SCHOOL SCHEDULES). *Hollers.*

3. What limits you most on Society6?

They should have a template for phone cases because I have a problem whenever I upload some typography designs. And, some of my designs are not available in another product even though I already uploaded a design for that particular product.

ALSO! Take note on this, if you haven't noticed: Whenever you upload your designs or view some artists store on S6 using Google Chrome, some of the products are not shown or not "there" when you expect it to be there.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: Her 'mischief managed' art print and her 'home is where my books at' tote bag look FAB. Check out her store!

Bhavya

1. Why did you choose Society6? It seemed easier and nicer to deal with than Redbubble.

2. What is the best feature of Society6? I think the best feature of society6 is that you can pick your profit for the prints. Also, they seem to have sales all the time.

3. What limits you most on Society6? It's a bit annoying to resize images for the different products. A few of the products to have templates but it would be nice to have one for all of them. That way it's easier to figure where to place things so print doesn't look odd/end up where you don't want it to be.

ALYSSA RECOMMENDS: This iPhone case is so unique. Check out her store!

For those skimmers, here's the infographic towards the right again for your reference.

Personally, while I'm all for monetising book blogs, I feel that the design store market is a little oversaturated, and book bloggers are now gearing up for other ventures like subscription boxes.

There are also some designers who don't really have quality work, but just slap haphazard fonts on random backgrounds. And that's okay — everyone has a learning curve.

But take the time to make quality designs and artwork, and then? Upload everything and "they will come"?

Not quite. Build your reputation in the blookunity (read my super intense detailed guide how), learn how to market your work, and let's rock whatever design store you choose.


Are you Team Redbubble or Team Society6? Do you sell your designs online? Who sells your favourite book merch?

Looking to promote to book lovers? My giveaways are promoted to 1000+ subscribers and have gotten up to 18K impressions on Twitter. Email me to sponsor one now!

5 Steps to Defining Your Trademark as a Book Blogger

BLOOKUNITY. Are you ready for an intense 2000 word guide to define YOUR book blogger trademark? It's super detailed, but don't worry — it's divided into 5 simple steps and summarised into two sentences. Stay until the end for that summary!

In this post, I'll be analysing the 5 essential components of a book blogger's trademark. This guide can help you carve out your own individual niche and make your mark in the blookunity!

Background image from Creative Market. Pin this, won't you?

Last week on Twitter, I told about 70 bloggers what I thought their trademarks were, and there were a few themes that kept popping up.

Why is having a blogger trademark important?

There are many, many, many book bloggers out there. Having a trademark makes it easier for everyone to remember you in the blookunity, and if you're THE person with that trademark, people will automatically think of you when they come across it in real life!

Having a trademark is like having the same profile picture across all your social media. It makes people remember (and like!) you more because you're different.

If you're not sure what your trademark is, and you want to have a unique image in the blookunity, read through these five steps and create your own book blogger trademark so everyone will associate you with a few specific things!

Looking to promote your blog to book lovers? My giveaways are promoted to 1000+ subscribers and have gotten up to 18K impressions on Twitter. Email me to sponsor one now!

So without further ado, the 5 essential components of a book blogger's trademark!

1. What are your major post types?

Many people have recurring blog series. For example, every month, I talk about Chinese culture and that's one of my more popular posts. I don't post book reviews, but I write lots of bookish discussions. I also post writing snippets every now and then.

Some examples of post types:

• list posts
• discussion posts
• writing snippets
• graphics posts
• collaboration/roundup posts

You don't necessarily need to only write this type of post, or change all your blog posts — just take a look if there are any major trends! If you're having trouble finding what types of post you write most, try to figure out which post types receive the most comments/pageviews/shares.

BUT don't go for something that's not that unique. Like book reviews or blog tours or Top Ten Tuesday posts ... let's be honest, 80% of the blookunity do those, and they're not as memorable. Find what makes you different.

You can emphasise your major post type by making a "top posts" widget in your sidebar or footer or adding it to your navigation bar! That way, people who land on your blog will immediate see these posts and associate you with them.

2. What are your recurring themes?

All book bloggers will of course talk about books. So to set yourself apart, you need to talk about specific books in a specific way. I explain Chinese customs every month, and I write Chinese-inspired books, and basically I carry a sign saying "China" through the Internet. A lot of people told me they associated me with Chinese culture.

What's more, I sometimes get random DMs or messages asking me about Chinese culture. (Which I 200% welcome!) Now I'm sure I'm not the only person familiar with China in the blookunity, but I make a point of emphasising it. Get known for talking about a specific subject matter, and you'll be the go-to person for that.

For more bookish niches, I've broken this part down into three sections:

a) What is your favourite genre?

There are some bloggers that read everything and anything, of course. But some people review mostly contemporary, mostly historical fiction, mostly romance, mostly dystopian. And most likely you also have a favourite genre — this is your ready-made trademark, y'all.

Then you need to narrow it down. My favourite genre is fantasy, in case you didn't know. But I'm not so much a fan of urban fantasy as something that is 80% speculative. This is easier for me because I write novels and categorise them in my head, but just scan your shelf and see if any genres pop out at you!

I'm also a huge fan of fairytales and mythology and legends, which is why another of my trademarks is myths and retellings. Many of my manuscripts are retellings, especially YA fantasy retellings.

And yeah, these trademarks might overlap! Which makes for a more coherent trademark. In a moment, we'll try to put all these together to make ONE trademark sentence to define you, so make sure these fit together.

b) Who are your favourite authors?

Yeah, yeah, I can hear you complain about finding this. Not to worry, I have an infographic for you to find your fav author. There's no need to have a single obvious one.

My favourite author is Victoria Schwab, author of A Darker Shade of Magic amongst others, and in case you didn't know there's an #ADSOMreadalong going on at the moment and you should most certainly join in the fun on Twitter!

Wait, see what I did there? I just advocated an author — who writes many books in my favourite genre! Having a few obvious favourite authors helps define your genre in a much more specific way.

And remember, it's not just knowing in your head who is your favourite author — show it to the world! Throw their books at people! Take bookstagrams of their books! Advocate the author. It's good karma, but by recommending books to others, the blookunity will remember your fandoms. You'll be THE [insert author] fan.

c) What bookish causes do you support?

In case you didn't know, I love diverse representation. I basically never. shut. up about it. My tagline and bios include my advocacy for diverse representation. I discuss diversity like ALWAYS.

There are so many causes you can take up in the blookunity. You can support indie or debut authors. You can support #readwomen or #ownvoices. You can focus on reviewing LGBT+ or mental illness books. You can support local bookstores and libraries.

3. What is your writing style or voice?

I try to keep my blog posts snarky but stay away from too many emojis, although I do use caps occasionally. I'm much more informal on Twitter and go loose with caps and emojis and *flailing*. But my novelling style tends towards the lyrical side.

Some examples of writing style:

• ALL CAPS SO EXCITED AAAAAH
• Short and sweet.
• *narrates own actions like this*
• lowercase letters are totally hipster, right
• Emojis — this works even better if you overuse one specific emoji!
• made-up words, e.g. blookunity for me, or words used out of context like "breadstick" as an affectionate term

Of course, your writing style is not so easily defined! Take some time to explore this, or RT my tweet and I'll see if anything jumps out at me. And start working right away with the step-by-step action guide I created:

Get this 30-step guide to stand out in the blookunity!

4. What is your aesthetic?

My aesthetic is definitely dark and evil and nefarious. Mwahahaha. I was told I was Gothic, also. If you're not the artsy type (like me) and can't tell your own aesthetic, here are the two things you can focus on:

(a) Colour

The colours I use on the blog are red and white and black, with a few shades in between. This background is actually a pale shade of pinkish yellow, I think. I definitely go for bold and badass more than sweet and sassy, because that's who I choose to be online.

Let's revise some of those art lessons I've forgotten! Do you use warm or cool colours? Grayscale or highly saturated? Pastel or dark? Create a colour palette and play around with it!

(b) Font

I use a lot of Times New Roman, so I suppose that's why I'm "Gothic"? For my blog graphics, I use Avenir Next, which is a simple, more minimalistic font. It doesn't contribute towards my aesthetic, but it doesn't contradict either. Thick cursive fonts, thin dainty fonts, carefree handwriting fonts ... there are so many options here!

There are of course other aesthetic things such as gifs, or how your profile picture looks. And if you're on Instagram, perhaps you have a specific aesthetic there — apply it to your blog design, your Twitter headers, everything.

This can also become much more concrete if there's a specific object that can convey the aesthetic. Like a certain shade of lipstick, or a logo! (I actually am thinking I might need to switch up my flower logo sometime. Huh.) Add these items to your profile pictures or social media headers. Tada, aesthetic established!

If you have no idea what your aesthetic is? Get inspired with Nova @ Out of Time's aesthetic guessing game! See if you can guess mine, it shouldn't be difficult. She'll do a how-to post for aesthetics soon, so stay tuned for that.

5. What is your random favourite thing?

This is not mandatory, and in fact is probably detached from the rest of your trademark. But a random favourite thing adds personality. You're not just a book blogger, you are also a human. (I hope!)Having a favourite non-bookish thing reminds the blookunity of that.

So don't say "Oh I love books" or "I fangirl a lot". Sure, that's part of your trademark as well, but a random trademark is there to add something else. Mine is of course takeout — it's in the blog title, I often send people virtual takeout, I use puns like Dim Summary, and I call my readers a takeout army.

Bonus points if you include it in your profile photo — this is easily done if it's a tea/coffee mug, or a camera, or cake, some such!

Plus here's your two-sentence summary of this blog post!

Your book blogger trademark in a sentence: I am a [genre] book blogger who writes [writing style] [major post type] about [recurring theme], with [an aesthetic]. Also, I love [random thing].

For example, I am a Hong Kong (recurring theme) YA fantasy (genre) book blogger and writer who writes lyrical (writing style) retellings (genre) and bookish discussions (major post type) about diverse (recurring theme) magical girls. On the dark side (aesthetic), of course. (snarky writing style is shown!) Also, I love takeout. (random)

I didn't follow the template exactly here, but I get the same message across by showing, not telling! This is even better and can take your trademark to the next level.

Looking to promote your blog to book lovers? My giveaways are promoted to 1000+ subscribers and have gotten up to 18K impressions on Twitter. Email me to sponsor one now!

Want to develop your trademark? Grab your 30-step action guide right now!

The thing is — a single component cannot define your trademark. A list of a few things? That's what you should aim for — a coherent group of issues/ideas/concepts that you'd totally dig.

Secret Life of a Book Blogger and Writer Tags

Exciting news, people! First, today you get to find out all my writing and book blogging secrets. Secondly, I'm tackling two tags today, and two tags next week, and soon my tag backlog will be reduced to TWO only. So if you have tag things, TAG ME IN THEM.

^^ That was true when I wrote this post. A few days later as I schedule it, I have been tagged in new things. It does not matter. STILL TAG ME FOR EVERYTHING. I shall get to it!

First, Emily @ Loony Literate tagged me to talk about the Secret Life of a Book Blogger! I was eyeing this one for ages because it looked ridiculously fun, despite the vague questions.

1. How long have you been a blogger? Two years and a half! Admittedly, for the first year and more I completely ignored the blogosphere, so really it's only been a year in the real blogger life.

2. At which point do you think you'll stop blogging? I genuinely don't know. I love the book blogging community (even though that was too long; we should just call ourselves the blookunity) but I'm also having trouble keeping up with my twice-weekly blog schedule.

Expect that I'll switch back to weekly posting at some point, and then maybe biweekly. But will I give up on blogging?

3. What is the best thing about the community? Well, the "blookunity", clearly. (I'm loving this name too much.) Also that we can be absolutely crazy and no one will question it.

4. What is the worst thing? What would you do to make it okay? When the words are stuck on their way from your heart to your fingers, or the words come but they're the wrong words. Not sure that there's a way to fix it, but I am working on revisions.

5. How long does it take you to create/find pictures to use? I'm trying to rid myself of the habit of running to Google images and spending 3.4 seconds sourcing them, so instead I use 8.4 days taking pictures of things in my house and negotiate a treaty in 6.1 months with the graphic design witches.

Gifs, though, I'm never going to stop using those. Those take seconds, especially with my Pinterest board.

6. Who is your book crush? I'm going to have to say Holland from A Darker Shade of Magic is pretty adorable, but also enough of an antagonist I can feel completely justified in throwing my TBR at him. Even magic cannot withstand the weight of my TBR. Puns ahoy!

7. Which author would you like to have on your blog? Vague question, so my answer is: George R. R. Martin. I'll distract him with lavishly described takeout, borrow Topaz Winters' dragons, and rip the next books out of his fingers.

8. What do you wear when you write your blog posts? See, I kind of write my blog posts everywhere all the time, so it's hard to generalise. But probably mostly in my PJs.

9. How long does it take for you to prepare? Well, typically it takes me about one week to identify a suitable person, maybe two more weeks to murder them, and then I have to wait for the next full moon to brew the necessary ointments. Then I make my sacrifice and voila! Blog post.

10. How do you feel about the book blogger community? I said this once, I'm gonna say it again: we ought to rename ourselves 'blookunity'. All those in favour, I'll see you in the comments section.

11. What do you think one should do to get a successful blog? I'm still working on that, but my tips so far:

• Readable design. Seriously, I started out with white-on-black text and what was past me even thinking?
• Socialise in the blookunity. (I refuse to believe this is not a word. IT IS.) 
• And of course, have fun.

(As always, I am nominating people for both tags at once, so keep on scrolling!)

Next, Opal has tagged me in the Writer's Life for Me Tag!

1. What kind of writer are you?

2. When did you start writing? What made you want to try it? I'm pretty sure I started writing because we had to do compositions for school. Then I wrote a terrible The Golden Compass rip-off (three, I think, but we don't talk about them). I tried it because ... words, I guess?

3. What inspires your stories? Other stories.

4. What themes do you like to explore in your writing? Feminism, racism, rebellion (normally poorly executed and unwise rebellion), legacy, deception. I'm gonna quote my own tagline: magic, madness, and murder.

5. Are you a pantster or a plotter or a bit of both?

I think that even my outlines are very short drafts, and my first draft is just a very detailed and messy outline. You can check out my posts about sparse draft if you're interested in my blitz writing strategy.

6. Where are you at in your journey? Querying, agented, published? So, I should be querying Winner Takes All, but I also have this nagging feeling that I ought to set it aside for a year or two and revise it then. So right now: just writing.

7. Have you ever entered any writing contests? Finaled? Won? I probably have, but I genuinely don't recall since I typically only enter city-wide contests with themes like "Good people good deeds!" and ... I don't even like what I submit.

8. Who are your writer heroes? There are many, most of them published authors, but the online writers who are the reason I am still writing today: Heather. Christina. Topaz. Cait. Aimee. And everyone who has ever given me writing advice or read my works or anything.

9. Have you been to a writing conference? Share your best or worst conference experience. No, I haven't, and I'm miserable.

10. Top 3 tips you'd give to newbie writers? I have to say I'm not that experienced, but:

• Delete the aspiring before writer. You write. You are a writer.
• Writing is hard. Love it anyways.
• Write what you want, but not when you want. Write constantly.

This time, I'm tagging some fabulous commenters on The Devil Orders Takeout for both tags: Ashley, Romi, Liz Brooks, Nirvana. Thank you so much (to everyone, but particularly you few) for your continued support!

Should book bloggers be called the blookunity?!? What tips would you give book bloggers or writers? Who are YOUR writer heroes?

Join my takeout army to receive monthly letters of magic, madness, and murder!

3 Ways to Attract Recurring Readers

After Saturday's post about #Followception, are you ready to hear more about interacting with the community? I'm so honoured to be guest posting on Heather's blog today:

3 Ways To Attract Recurring Readers

Recurring readers aren't just a statistic. You can't point at a pageview or a subscriber and say: That's it, that one's a recurring reader. But when you smile at a commenter's name, or you predict what they will say, and somehow, they're more than words on your computer: that's a recurring reader.

Read more on specific strategies here >>

Both Heather and I will be around to reply to comments and comment back! And if you haven't already, remember to join my birthday giveaway and blogoversary. It ends this Friday, so get your entries in.

Delivery Fangirl [1]: #Followception

In case you missed it, my birthday giveaway and blog party is ending next Friday! Join us now to win a book of your choice — it's international because I don't live in the US anyways. ;) And while we're on the topic of giving back to the community ...

Delivery Fangirl is an original blog feature on The Devil Orders Takeout, featuring questions from my favourite books and movies, preferred heaadcanons, and the importance of diversity.

I'm so excited to present this new feature! Today is finding the fandom community and your own place in it through a method I call #Followception. (Sort of like Inception, but with follows.)

#Followception is like pass the parcel, but with follows. (tweet this)

The entire idea is to find a person whom you follow and admire, then follow some of their followers. It's not a new concept by any means, but #Followception isn't just about clicking a button; it's about getting to know more of the community. So if you love Marvel and you see Marvel Fangirl is followed by DC Fangirl, you might wanna rethink following DC Fangirl in this context.

(*cough* I mean, not that you can't like both Marvel and DC Comics.)

@skyofthetiger I think I was just following people followed by people I follow :) #followception
— Alyssa Carlier (@sisterofsilence) January 31, 2015

The point is to find your kindred spirit by taking 5 minutes out of your day each week, choosing a person you admire with similar interests, and taking a look at their Twitter/blog followers. #Followception is an especially useful tool if you're new to the fandom and have no clue what to do, because this way, you can learn from the best.

Meet new people in the same fandom or industry with #Followception.

I more or less explained this above, but here are some examples of truly marvellous coincidences that #Followception has brought me.

• Sky, from the above Tweet: I follow Christina on Twitter, who follows Sky on myWriteClub. I also follow Cait's blog, who co-hosts Beautiful People with Sky.
• Topaz Winters, my takeout and timezone buddy: I follow Christina who follows AnQi, who joined Christina on The Teacup Trail staff, including Topaz, whose blog I follow.
• Heather, now my CP: I follow AnQi who participated in TCWT hosted by John. Heather participated in TCWT and after mutual comments, I nagged at her until we became CPs.

Like in the last example, #Followception isn't just about follows. This could work as easily with comments on someone's fanfiction, aggressively reblogging gifsets, or the like. The important thing is interaction and engagement.

(Psst, to start #followception right away ... just follow all the people I've linked to. They're awesome.)

#Followception can even help you gain more followers.

I once asked Topaz about her stellar marketing efforts and she kindly blogged about her marketing mindset. The key idea is that marketing is about building relationships. And while I stand behind that 120%, it's sometimes difficult to start when you're just an icon in the interwebs.

#Followception is about reaching out to new people, finding your fellow fangirls. And once you've found them, the fandom love doesn't stop there. Retweet their messages. Spread the word about their fanworks and blog posts. Talk about them.

Everyone loves it when their work is appreciated, and if it happens several times, they might begin to take a look at your online profile and reciprocate. Pass the parcel and the fandom love. Someday, it might be your dream #Followception targets.

How do you show your appreciation in fandoms? Have you tried #Followception? Share your takeout in the comments!

Want to share the fandom love? Start by tweeting this post:

• #Followception is like pass the parcel, but with follows. (Click to tweet)
• A simple way to establish yourself in a community: #Followception! (Click to tweet)

Help out a fellow fangirl and sign up for my bimonthly newsletter!

Update: I wrote a follow-up guest post on Heather's blog about recurring readers. If you liked this post, you should check that one out too!

Fan Month: Summer is Coming

I'm joining in Fan Month held by Heather @ Sometimes I'm A Story. Fan Month is a time period, not necessarily a month, in which you take a break from your own blog and cheer on other people. Heather has an introductory post and giveaway on her blog.

And yes, that title was an attempt at subverting the Stark motto.

1. When do you plan on being a fan?

I've got a little thing coming up for my birthday this Friday, and it's likely to stretch on for a couple of weeks, so that'll be the last two weeks of March.

2. What goals will you set for yourself?

I'd like to discover 10 new blogs and maybe 100 interesting posts.

3. Are you going to set any rules for yourself? Exceptions to those rules?

I will schedule all my blog posts for the month and not look at them again except to reply to comments. I will read my entire Bloglovin' feed every day on the train, visit all the other people in this link-up, and stop ignoring Bloglovin' recommendations. I will not visit Tumblr except to reply to messages, check my activity for tags, and check my username.

4. Where do you plan on sharing the great posts you read?

Twitter ... maybe with a hashtag? #FanMonth or #FanMonthRec? Drop a suggestion in the comments :D

5. Where could you be a fan outside the blogosphere?

I guess the obvious answer is books. I'll rate every book I read and review whenever possible. And I'll look for a Wattpad/Figment link whenever I'm wandering around the blogosphere, so I can comment on unpublished works too.

Are you also participating in Fan Month? How could you be a fan? Share in the comments!